In the early days of Marvel Studios, it wasn’t uncommon that a role like Steve Rogers aka Captain America went out to a huge amount of people to audition for it.
Folks such as John Krasinski (fan favorite to play Reed Richards), who at the time hadn’t made a film such as Michael Bay’s 13 Hours or taken over the Jack Ryan role for the Amazon series, but was known as simply Jim from The Office. Others that auditioned included Sebastian Stan, who would take on the Bucky Barnes aka Winter Soldier role. Stan wasn’t the only person give a second role in the MCU after attempting to play Captain America.
Well, Wyatt Russell admitted the other day to Good Morning America that he was also one of those many young actors who auditioned for the Rogers part over a decade ago. However, Russell ended up getting another super-soldier role in the MCU as he was selected to play John Walker aka U.S. Agent in their Disney+ series The Falcon & The Winter Soldier, being referred to in the show as the “new Captain America.”
Russell admitting it was his first Hollywood audition and that he clearly knew he wasn’t in the running to play Rogers. It was more about attempting the audition itself to see if acting was a good fit after his hockey career ended due to an injury. But when he was asked by Marvel to read for John Walker, he didn’t know what is was until he landed it.
Yesterday, director James Gunn teased that a trailer for his DC Comics film The Suicide Squad would get it’s first trailer released and today is the day!
It confirms that mind-controlling cosmic villain Starro is indeed in the film (something that was revealed over the summer) and that Sly Stallone is voicing King Shark.
You can check out that first trailer below.
From the horribly beautiful mind of @JamesGunn, #TheSuicideSquad hits theaters and @HBOMax August 6. Watch the Official Red Band trailer now, ❤️ to subscribe, and be among the first to receive content up until release! pic.twitter.com/O4fw1pbvXO
Welcome to hell—a.k.a. Belle Reve, the prison with the highest mortality rate in the US of A. Where the worst Super-Villains are kept and where they will do anything to get out—even join the super-secret, super-shady Task Force X. Today’s do-or-die assignment? Assemble a collection of cons, including Bloodsport, Peacemaker, Captain Boomerang, Ratcatcher 2, Savant, King Shark, Blackguard, Javelin and everyone’s favorite psycho, Harley Quinn. Then arm them heavily and drop them (literally) on the remote, enemy-infused island of Corto Maltese. Trekking through a jungle teeming with militant adversaries and guerrilla forces at every turn, the Squad is on a search-and-destroy mission with only Colonel Rick Flag on the ground to make them behave…and Amanda Waller’s government techies in their ears, tracking their every movement. And as always, one wrong move and they’re dead (whether at the hands of their opponents, a teammate, or Waller herself). If anyone’s laying down bets, the smart money is against them—all of them.
The film stars Margot Robbie (“Birds of Prey,” “Bombshell”), Idris Elba (“Avengers: Infinity War”), John Cena (upcoming HBO Max series “Peacemaker,” “Bumblebee”), Joel Kinnaman (“Suicide Squad”), Jai Courtney (the “Divergent” franchise), Peter Capaldi (“World War Z,” BBC’s “Doctor Who” ), David Dastmalchian (upcoming “Dune,” “Ant-Man and the Wasp”), Daniela Melchior (“Parque Mayer”), Michael Rooker (the “Guardians of the Galaxy” films), Alice Braga (“Elysium”), Pete Davidson (“The King of Staten Island,” TV’s “Saturday Night Live”), Joaquín Cosio (“Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” TV’s “Narcos: Mexico”), Juan Diego Botto (“The Europeans”), Storm Reid (“The Invisible Man,” “A Wrinkle in Time”, “Euphoria”), Nathan Fillion (“Guardians of the Galaxy,” TV’s “The Rookie”), Steve Agee (“Brightburn,” “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2”), Sean Gunn (the “Guardians of the Galaxy” films, the “Avengers” films), Mayling Ng (“Wonder Woman”), Flula Borg (“Ralph Breaks the Internet”), Jennifer Holland (“Brightburn,” upcoming HBO Max series “Peacemaker”) and Tinashe Kajese (TV’s “Valor,” “The Inspectors”), with Sylvester Stallone (the “Rocky,” “Rambo” and “Expendables” franchises), and Viola Davis (“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” “Suicide Squad”).
Gunn (the “Guardian of the Galaxy” films) directs from his own screenplay, based on characters from DC. The film is produced by Charles Roven and Peter Safran, with Zack Snyder, Deborah Snyder, Walter Hamada, Chantal Nong Vo, Nikolas Korda and Richard Suckle executive producing.
Gunn’s creative team includes director of photography Henry Braham (“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2”), production designer Beth Mickle (“Captain Marvel”), editors Fred Raskin (“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2,” “Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood”) and Christian Wagner (the “Fast & Furious” films) and Oscar-nominated costume designer Judianna Makovsky (“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2,” “Avengers: Endgame,” “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone”). The music is by John Murphy (“Kick-Ass”).
As mentioned above The Suicide Squad is set for release on August 6, 2021 on both HBO Max and in theaters.
It looks like Jodie Turner-Smith (Without Remorse) will have some company in Netflix’s prequel/spinoff series The Witcher: Blood Origin. A new casting report from Deadline states that Irish actor Laurence O’Fuarain has been placed in the leading role of Fjall.
They also provided a character breakdown.
Born into a clan of warriors sworn to protect a King, Fjall carries a deep scar within, the death of a loved one who fell in battle trying to save him. A scar that won’t let him settle, or make peace with himself or the world around him. In his quest for redemption, Fjall will find himself fighting beside the most unlikely of allies as he carves a path of vengeance across a continent in turmoil.
The main series is currently in it’s second season and is led by Henry Cavill as the iconic Witcher character Geralt of Rivia. Blood Origin has six episodes and takes place 1,200 years in the past.
Set 1,200 years before the world of The Witcher, Blood Origin will tell the story of the creation of the first prototype Witcher, and the events that lead to the pivotal ‘conjunction of the spheres’, when the worlds of monsters, men, and elves merged to become one.
Episode 1 ended with the U.S. government selecting Wyatt Russell’s John Walker as the new Captain America and in Episode 2 we see a little background on the character giving him a little bit of personality. Walker also has his own sidekick with Battlestar being confirmed. However, his existence seems to irk both Sam and Bucky as the latter is frustrated that Wilson turned down the shield letting an outsider take over Steve’s mantle which went against his wishes.
We see most of The Flash Smashers have been enhanced with the super-soldier serum and are on the run from The Power Broker, a Marvel villain that has been teased in the end credits. This might suggest the masked group might not be as villainous as they’ve been made out to be and are trying to keep themselves one step ahead of the real villain. The Power Broker threatening to kill them.
Bucky reveals to Sam that there was another secret super-soldier, Isaiah Bradley, played by Carl Lumbly and there is an assumption that Elijah Richardson was playing Isaiah’s grandson Eli Bradley aka Patriot. It’s mentioned that Bucky and Bradley came to blows during the Korean War along with the horrible revelation that he was thrown into prison to rot for 30 years. Sam is horrified that nobody knew that Bradley existed and there are overtones that Isaiah being a black man played a role to the government keeping that a secret.
Walker and Battlestar are keen to work with Bucky and Sam but the two established characters seem to be reluctant to do so. At the end of the episode our two protagonists attempt to get more answers from Zemo, who is still locked-up. Something is going to happen because we’ve seen multiple set photos and footage Zemo out in the world.
I’ll be curious to see if Walker, Zemo, and The Power Broker are connected.
I also wouldn’t be shocked to see the Bradley family has a link to Erin Kellyman’s Karli.
The unmade Batman film starring, co-written, and directed by Ben Affleck sounded sort of interesting. There had been previous talk that Arkham Asylum would have been a featured location with Joe Manganiello’s Slade Wilson aka Deathstroke being set up as the film’s big bad.
Manganiello dished a few more details to Comic Book’s podcast Phase Zero (spotted by The Playlist), where he name dropped Barbara Gordon aka Batgirl needing to get involved as Batman couldn’t handle Deathstroke on his own. Adding that Wilson would be more of a horror character citing Steven Spielberg’s shark movie Jaws.
MANGANIELLO: “There was like a big huge showdown, I think between Batgirl…Batgirl jumps in to try and help Bruce because Deathstroke is so fast. He can anticipate Bruce’s movements. That leads to this big climactic battle through the streets of Gotham in the end. It’s like a real-life psychological thriller with Deathstroke. He was like a horror movie, like a shark, kind of like Jaws.”
We’ll likely never see this ever fully realized but it’s certainly interesting tidbits of information none-the-less. Affleck is said to be appearing one more time as Batman in The Flash movie and might be his last time in the role.
Matt Reeves is busy with his own Batman trilogy starring Robert Pattinson and it was revealed by DC Films that it takes place within the cinematic universe’s version of Earth 2. This allowing the studio to populate new/rebooted versions of DC Comics heroes in that world starting with The Batman.
Sony Pictures and PlayStation Productions are moving forward with a feature film based on their samurai action-focused video game Ghost of Tsushima and there is word from Deadline that they’ve selected John Wick franchise director Chad Stahelski to make it.
The game is developed by Sucker Punch Productions and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment and centers around samurai warrior Jin Sakai, the last surviving member of his clan, who must set aside the traditions that have shaped him as a warrior to wage an unconventional war for the freedom of Tsushima.
In 1274, a Mongolian invasion fleet led by Khotun Khan lands on the Japanese island of Tsushima. Realizing that he cannot defeat the Mongols by himself or with traditional samurai fighting tactics, Jin begins scouring the island to recruit allies and learn fighting techniques to aid in his quest to rescue Lord Shimura.
A screenwriter or idea when production would begin wasn’t mention in the report.
There is an expectation that we’ll see an Asian only cast given the setting and era.
However, given the violence involved with the samurai genre, it’s unknown if they’ll be aiming to make this an R-rated project. There is a good chance that with Chad directing that Sony might allow this to become a mature film project.
Chad is set to begin production on John Wick: Chapter 4 this June and has been developing multiple action projects including a Highlander reboot for Lionsgate.
Sony is hoping to mine a bulk of their video game IPs with an Uncharted film starring Spider-Man actor Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg on the way. Along with an HBO series adaptation of The Last of Us starring Pedro Pascal (Game of Thrones, The Mandalorian) as Joel.
We’ll keep our fingers crossed their new God of War games taking place in Norse mythology get a string of R-rated movies too.
Director Cary Joji Fukunaga has joined the world of massive studio blockbusters with the upcoming James Bond release No Time To Die, the final film of the Daniel Craig era and the studio now looks to find a new actor. The filmmakers seemingly itching to tackle more genre IP as he’s set to direct a feature film adaptation of an Image Comics property.
Yesterday, The Hollywood Reporter revealed that Legendary Entertainment has tapped Fukunaga to tackle a film based on their cyberpunk comic Tokyo Ghost.
Tokyo Ghost is set in 2089 when humanity has become fully addicted to technology as an escape from reality. The story follows peacekeepers Debbie Decay and Led Dent, who are working in the Isles of Los Angeles and are given a job that will take them to the last tech-free country on Earth: the garden nation of Tokyo.
The comic’s writer Rick Remender (Deadly Class, Fear Agent) will be writing the script.
Western cyberpunk films such as The Matrix, RoboCop, Blade Runner/Blade Runner 2049, Upgrade, and Total Recall have had varying levels of success. However, there has been a bit of hiccup with Hollywood attempts to adapt Japanese entries such as the Scarlett Johansson box office flop Ghost In The Shell and Warner Bros. has spent almost twenty years trying to make a movie based on the manga Akira.
Tokyo Ghost being from an western comic book might have an easier time being translated to the big screen. Audiences are also newly aware of the genre thanks to the recent video game Cyberpunk 2077. It’ll be interesting to see how they tackle this adaptation visually as the artwork from the comic would be certainly jarring to general film audiences.
Cary is also set to direct episodes of the Apple TV+ series Masters of The Air, the WWII project is produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks. Considered to be a follow-up to their previous shows Band of Brothers and The Pacific as HBO passed and Apple grabbed it.
There had been talk that Warner Bros. wasn’t able to secure Billy Crudup to reprise the role of Henry Allen, Barry’s father, in the upcoming solo film shooting in the United Kingdom.
Yesterday, it was revealed by Variety that the studio has landed on character actor Ron Livingston to replace Billy Crudup as Henry. Ron is likely best known for the Mike Judge comedy film Office Space and his supporting role in HBO’s beloved WWII series Band of Brothers.
Henry has been wrongfully convicted of killing his wife and Barry’s mother leading to Flash using his powers to go back in time to prevent her murder leading to the Flashpoint story. Barry changing the timeline and saving his mother leads to a disastrous future, think the Butterfly Effect. However, it sounds like the feature film version of Flashpoint is going to be different than the other versions of it.
Despite reports of Michael Keaton returning to play Bruce Wayne aka Batman in the film, in a new interview with Deadline the actor suggested that COVID-19 in the UK and scheduling issues may end up preventing him from reprising the superhero role. It was exciting to see concept art from DC FanDome last summer that revealed bother Keaton and Ben Affleck incarnations of Batman were planned to appear in the film.
Sasha Calle had been previously announced as playing the film version of Supergirl, which could lead to her starring in her own solo film as the studio has been developing a Supergirl movie for a couple of years.
The other day it was announced that New Line Cinema had hired Oscar-winning actress Helen Mirren to play the villain Hespera in David F. Sanberg’s Shazam! sequel Shazam! Fury of The Gods.
Another big name has been selected for another key role in a DC Comics film.
Former James Bond actor Pierce Brosnan has been tapped to play DC Comics hero and Justice Society member Dr. Fate in Dwayne Johnson’s Black Adam solo film according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Brosnan will play Kent Nelson, aka the good Dr. Fate, a son of an archaeologist who was taught sorcery skills and given the magical Helmet of Fate. The character, created by Gardner Fox and Howard Sherman, is one of DC’s oldest characters, having first appeared in 1940’s More Fun Comics #5.
The Irish actor joins a cast that includes Aldis Hodge as Carter Hall aka Hawkman, Noah Centineo as Al Rothstein aka Atom Smasher, Quintessa Swindell as Maxine Hunkell aka Cyclone, Sarah Shahi as Adrianna Tomaz aka Isis, and Marwan Kenzari expected to play the film’s villain.
There is some hope from fans that there will be teases of a future crossover between Johnson’s Black Adam and Zachary Levi’s Shazam! as the two DC characters have come to blows in the comics.
Filming will begin next month in Atlanta with Jungle Cruise director Jaume Collet-Serra behind the camera and Warner Bros. has yet to give it a new release date.
Director Guy Ritchie had shot a English remake of the 2004 French film Le Convoyeur that has been re-titled as Wrath of Man, the film would be his first reunion with action star Jason Statham since the pair worked together on the long-forgotten thriller Revolver that was released back in 2005. The action-thriller also stars Jeffrey Donovan (Burn Notice, Sicario), Josh Harnett (Penny Dreadful, Pearl Harbor), Scott Eastwood (Fury, Fate of The Furious), Holt McCallany (Mindhunter), Niamh Algar (Raised By Wolves), Laz Alonso (Avatar), and rapper Post Malone.
We finally know when to expect a release date for Wrath of Man.
There is word from Deadline that the MGM and Miramax flick has swooped-in to take the vacated May 7-9 weekend release spot after Black Widow was moved by Disney to July 9.
Wrath of Man, written by Ritchie and Ivan Atkinson and Marn Davies, follows a mysterious and wild-eyed new cash truck security guard (Statham) who surprises his co-workers during a heist in which he unexpectedly unleashes precision skills. The crew is left wondering who he is and where he came from. Soon, the marksman’s ultimate motive becomes clear as he takes dramatic and irrevocable steps to settle a score.
Despite a May release, the studio has yet to reveal a first-look trailer for the Guy Ritchie flick and there are plans to release one on Monday. Below is a teaser poster for the film.
Statham and Ritchie are currently re-teaming for the international spy flick formerly known as Five Eyes. Guy is also trying to develop a series based on his film The Gentlemen and will make a WWII movie about the first British special forces unit.
THE RONIN 